He was quickly re-familiarizing himself with a place he called home from 1979-83. The former Runnin ’ Bulldog offensive lineman saw things like the baseball park, the tennis court complex, as well as the Tucker Student Center, for the first time.

This time though, returning to his alma mater was even more special. He was on hand to be introduced as GWU’s ninth head football coach during its senior college era at a press conference later in the day.

“I drove around and sort of stared at it,” McCray said of the campus. “I had not seen the facilities they have now. I was trying to look for the buildings I knew.

“What I saw was impressive. The Board of Trustees and the administration have put a lot into it. In such a competitive world, students like to see things that are new and exciting.”

For the day, McCray himself fit into that category. A former head coach at Austin Peay and most recently at North Greenville, he also brings the experience from coaching stops at Appalachian State, South Carolina, Furman and Mississippi State, among others.

“This is an emotional time,” said McCray. “When you come to your own school, you have a different feeling regardless of anywhere else you’ve been.”

He’s getting right to work trying to get a Gardner-Webb program that only has two winning seasons since 2003 on track. McCray met with the Runnin ’ Bulldog players Monday afternoon and now turns his attention to recruiting, all the while putting a staff together.

Both he and GWU President Dr. Frank Bonner spoke about priorities, criteria and goals during the press conference.

“He is a strong Christian who will provide character-based leadership for our football program,” Dr. Bonner said. “As an alumnus and former Gardner-Webb player, he knows and believes in the values, principles and culture of our university.”

McCray said he aware “how tough and competitive the Big South Conference is. Any league that has an automatic playoff berth you know is going to be competitive. And I believe this conference had two in the postseason last year.

“That’s what we’re targeting. When I went in the football center, I saw some trophies they have and we want to add to that. It’s very attainable even though it’s a tough league.”

If you chose a word to summarize McCray’s approach to football X’s and O’s, it might be ‘multiple.’

“I still think you have to win the game up front, and that’s from on old offensive lineman,” he said. “If you look at the two teams playing this week (in the Super Bowl) and the teams that played in the national championship games in every division, you saw that.

Page 2 of 2 - “That being said, offensively we want to stretch the field horizontally and vertically. We look to be multiple — and even though you want it to be simplified for your players, you want the other team to see things as complicated. You do that by your formations, motion, those things. And defensively, you want to be aggressive but show them a lot of things so they can’t dictate what’s happening.”

The Runnin ’ Bulldogs will make their debut under McCray’s guidance on Aug. 31 at home versus Furman.